Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors) | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mayo for her question, I thank her for bringing Greg's case to the parliament, and I appreciate the engagement that her office regularly has with mine as we try to work through these issues for constituents, as I do with many members across the parliament. As the member for Mayo's question pertains to, our population is ageing very rapidly, and demand for care is growing very rapidly accordingly. In some cases, people such as Greg have gone through the assessment process and are still waiting to receive the care that they need.

Our government is responding to this challenge. As of 31 March, a record 364,723 older Australians have access to an ongoing Support at Home place, while 100,191 are still waiting for their approved level. That's why this financial year alone we're delivering 83,000 additional in-home care places, and we're not stopping there. This budget most recently outlined our plan to deliver another 32,000 places next financial year. These extra packages will continue taking pressure off the national priority system, getting more older people the care that they need more quickly. Once we've rolled out these additional places, by the end of 2026-27, 420,000 older Australians will have access to Support at Home. That will be almost three times the number of older Australians that were receiving care as compared with the Home Care Packages Program back in 2020.

Our significant investment in additional places is making a difference. Since Support at Home began on 1 November, wait times have come down across high, medium and standard priorities, and every person assessed as urgent continues to receive their funding within a month. Additionally, within the budget we outlined additional investment to ensure that the prioritisation mechanism within—

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